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Oct 21, 2015 Back to the Future By Christopher Roberts

Today is finally the day that Marty McFly comes to future in Back to the Future Part II. The first act of that 1989 film takes place on October 21, 2015. And while we may not have hoverboards (at least not like the ones in the film), flying cars, self-drying jackets, dust resistant paper, Jaws 19, and fax machines in every room, we do have big screen TVs, ‘80s nostalgia, and the Cubs finally do have a shot of winning the World Series this year (although not against Miami). We also have the classic Back to the Future Trilogy, which is as beloved as any film series from the 1980s.

Today, in honor of “Back to the Future Day,” we have posted brand new interviews with Back to the Future co-creator/co-writer/producer Bob Gale, actress Lea Thompson (who played Marty’s mother Lorraine McFly) and actress Claudia Wells (who played Marty’s girlfriend Jennifer Parker). Each reflect on their experiences making Back to the Future, working with the rest of the cast (including Michael J. Fox and Crispin Glover), and how the future didn’t quite turn out the way they envisioned it would.

2015 is also the 30th anniversary of the release of the first Back to the Future movie, which is pretty much a perfect movie in terms of its script, casting, and tone. But it wasn’t exactly an easy movie to make, in large part because they famously had to recast the lead role partway through shooting. Michael J. Fox, the first choice to play Marty, wasn’t available because of his commitments to the hit sitcom Family Ties. His replacement, Eric Stoltz, while a fine dramatic actor, just wasn’t hitting the right comedic notes and wasn’t the Marty they were looking for and so Fox, whose Family Ties schedule had eased, was brought in as his replacement after they’d already been filming for over a month. Back to the Future was a huge success in 1985 and it spawned two sequels (Back to the Future Part III took Doc Brown and Marty McFly back to 1885), an animated series, video games, a theme park ride, a new comic book series that just launched, a forthcoming musical, and a ton of merchandise. The whole trilogy has also just been re-released on Blu-ray and is also screening in select movie theaters nationwide today. Also make sure to pick up Under the Radar‘s forthcoming next print issue to read another in-depth article on Back to the Future, for which we also spoke to Doc Brown himself, Christopher Lloyd.

Read our interview with Claudia Wells (Jennifer Parker).

Read our interview with Lea Thompson (Lorraine McFly).

Read our interview with co-writer/co-creator/producer Bob Gale.